Wood or agricultural residues burned in furnacesto heat water. This water can be pumped and circulated to heat buildings. (2)

Pyrolysis

Pyrolysis produces biochar, liquids and gases by heating biomass in a low or no oxygen environment. The absence of oxygen prevents combustion.
What is produced from pyrolysis varies with temperature:

400–500 °C produce more biochar

above 700 °C produces pyrolysis oil and gas fuel components

Pyrolysis oil

Pyrolysis oil is a liquid fuel that is derived from waste wood and pyrolysis.

Manitoba Hydro has collaborated with Tolko Industries and Ensyn Technologies to develop a Pyrolysis Oil Demonstration Project in The Pas, Manitoba.
The boiler operation at Tolko currently uses wood waste as well as waste oil and bunker C fuel. The boiler produces steam for paper-making in the plant and also to generate half the mill’s electricity.

For the demonstration, Ensyn supplied pyrolysis oil from their processing facility in Renfrew, Ontario to replace fossil fuels at Tolko’s Kraft Paper Mill.

Biochar

Biochar is a solid material that is obtained from pyrolysis.

This 2,000 year-old practice converts agricultural waste into a soil enhancer. Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous charcoal that helps soils retain nutrients and water. Biochar also improves water quality and quantity by increasing soil retention of nutrients and agrochemicals for plant and crop utilization. More nutrients stay in the soil instead of leaching into groundwater and causing pollution.

The carbon in biochar resists degradation and can hold carbon in soils for hundreds to thousands of years.

The Prairie Biochar Initiative started in 2009 to promote biochar in the Canadian Prairie provinces.

Biogas

On farms, anaerobic digesters or similar technologies have potential to harness methane gas from manure while also displacing fossil fuel energy sources.